On Monday, President Donald Trump’s administration has proposed opening up nearly all of America’s offshore waters to oil and gas drilling. The industry says it is mainly interested in the the eastern Gulf of Mexico, which is now closed off by the Pentagon.
Wochit

A pair of House bills passed Thursday could play a vital role in economic development initiatives in the Pensacola region.(Photo: News Journal file photo)

Editor's note: this story has been updated to reflect new information from the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement

The deadline is looming for the public to weigh in on a proposal that some fear would loosen safety and oversight regulations surrounding the offshore drilling industry.

The Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement, in response to an order from President Donald Trump's administration, is striving to eliminate "burdensome" regulations that adversely affect U.S. industries.

The BSEE is proposing two sets of rule revisions, one set that will close to public comment Tuesday and a second set that will open up to public comment in about a month. Among other changes, the revisions would remove a requirement that certain equipment be certified for performance under extreme conditions by an independent third party.

The proposed changes are concerning to some citizens, including former Florida governor and U.S. senator Bob Graham. Graham, co-chair of the national Deepwater Horizon commission and current commissioner in Oil Spill Commission Action, helped implement the rules requiring equipment certifications after finding lax safety and maintenance practices contributed to the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon oil platform.

Graham is opposing the proposed changes and urging other citizens to raise their concerns directly to the BSEE. The BSEE is accepting public comments about the first set of proposed regulatory changes at the Federal Register website until Monday. People can read the first set of proposed regulation changes in full by searching Regulation Identifier Number (RIN) 1014-AA37.

Greg Julian, press secretary for the BSEE, said the proposed regulation changes included a number of revisions that would make the oil industry safer. He noted the third party certifications for equipment were redundant because devices were already required to met industry standards set by the American Petroleum Institute and the American National Standards Institute.

He added, however, that the revisions included beneficial policies that put the force of federal law behind industry safety standards, and eliminated some bureaucracy that didn't actually improve safety.

"In no case will we make (the industry) less safe," Julian said.

Still, to give more people a chance at being heard, the Oil Spill Commission Action project is asking the BSEE to extend the public comment period. The commission is an outgrowth of the National Commission on the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill and Offshore Drilling — the group tasked with reviewing the BP oil spill and proposing policy changes.

FILE - In this April 2010 file photo, oil can be seen in the Gulf of Mexico, more than 50 miles southeast of Venice on Louisiana's tip, as a large plume of smoke rises from fires on BP's Deepwater Horizon offshore oil rig. Deep-water drilling is set to resume near the site of the catastrophic BP PLC well blowout that killed 11 workers and caused the nation's largest offshore oil spill five years ago off the coast of Louisiana.(Photo: AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)

"Because of the importance of ensuring the safety of offshore drilling operations to the environmental and economic health of coastal areas where such drilling occurs, and because of the complexity of the issues raised in the proposed regulations, we request that the comment period on the proposed regulation ... be extended by 60 days," the group wrote in a statement.

In this 2014 file photo, participants in the Hands Across the Sand gathering at Pensacola Beach Saturday afternoon line up on the shoreline to make their opposition to oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico known. A smaller group gathered at the Gulfside Pavilion this year, but organizers said more people already at the beach joined the group on the shoreline.(Photo:
Bruce Graner/bgraner@pnj.com
)

Graham noted the first set of proposed changes were announced on the Friday between Christmas and New Year's Day, a time when it was guaranteed to slip under most people's radar.

He said the BSEE owed it to the public to make sure discussion about the issue was as broad and inclusive as possible. He said it was imperative the BSEE extend the deadline for public comments, and that the public take the time to make their voices heard.

"This is their best opportunity to have their opinions considered," Graham said Thursday.